| Background Information |
The Emperor penguin is truly the supreme and most dignified of all penguins, as it towers above the rest at an amazing 115 cm. Its weight falls in synch with its height; it weighs-in at just over 30 kilograms, but male weight can vary up to half that amount depending on the length of breeding. Males and females are indistinguishable during most of the year; however, when it becomes time for the male to switch responsibilities with the female, the male can be half the weight of the female. Chicks are easily identified; they are the darlings of the penguins.
The Emperor penguin is the only penguin that inhabits the Antarctic continent solely. Populations have declinded somewhat since Bernard Stonehouse's accounts; about 220,000 stable breeding pairs roam around these ice shelves. Breeding occurs in late May or June and extends in to our winter. I would consider them migratory.
Most penguins lay around two eggs; Emperor females lay one and only one. Ovulation and egg laying is too energetically expensive beyond the first egg, and caring for more than one proves impossible.
The Emperor penguin feeds primarily on shaoling fish and squid, but whenever it comes across small crustaceans, it doesn't refuse them. Foraging presents predators with opportunities. Mostly these predators are orcas and the various seals (leopard) that actually make it that far south. Giant petrels prey upon eggs and chicks or remains.
| Author Bernard Stonehouse |
Emperor penguins Aptenodytes forsteri breed on seas ice and islets off the coast of the Antarctic continent. About two dozen colonies are known, ranging in size from less than 200 pairs (Dion Islands) to over 50,000 pairs (Coulman Island). In a survey of known colonies Budd (1962) estimated a world population of about 240,000 breeding birds. Geographical subspeciation does not appear to have occurred. Emperors assemble on the breeding colonies early in winter, shortly after the sea ice has formed, and lay in May or June. The single egg, held on the feet is incubated only by the males which huddle together tightly throughout the coldest months of winter, in temperatures which often fall below -40C. Females winter at seas, returning to the colonies seven to eight weeks after laying to relieve their mates and tend the newly hatched chicks. Chicks grow slowly at first, more rapidly in late spring, and reach independence by midsummer. The species has been studied during recent exploration of Antartica; for accounts of breeding biology see Stonehouse (1953), Prevost (1961), and Jouventin (1971).
| Emperor penguin multimedia |
- An Emperor penguin demonstrating royalty
- A female warms her chick
- An Emperor tends after its chick
- Youngsters in a creche
Emperor penguins migrating back to the ice shelf. (© PBS)
Emperor penguins bickering during egg laying season.
Emperor penguin fact sheet. (PDF, 110k)
